TVC 675.1: Ed welcomes back Julie Rogers Pomilia , granddaughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and the author of Your Heroes, My Grandparents: A Granddaughter's Love , the storybook tale of a little girl who just happened to have two famous relatives and who cherished every moment that she spent with them. Julie also worked very closely with Steve Nycklemoe, director of operations for The Hollywood Museum , in putting together the Happy Trails exhibit , honoring the life and legacy of Roy Rogers ...
Jan 27, 2025•21 min•Season 17Ep. 675
TVC 675.2: Julie Rogers Pomilia , granddaughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and the author of Your Heroes, My Grandparents: A Granddaughter's Love , talks to Ed about how why Roy Rogers and Dale Evans came to adorn their costumes with rhinestones; Dale's prolific writing career, which included thirty songs and many songs (including "Happy Trails" and "The Bible Tells Me So"); and why Roy and Dale didn't always comprehend the impact of their lives and career on the public at large. The Happy Tra...
Jan 27, 2025•17 min•Season 17Ep. 675
TVC 675.3: Ed's guests are Emmy Award-winning actress, screenwriter, and novelist Louise Shaffer ( Ryan's Hope, Search for Tomorrow, The Edge of Night, All My Suspects, Talked to Death ) and film and television historian Tom Lisanti ( Talking Sixties Drive-In Movies, Carol Lynley: Her Film & TV Career in Thrillers, Fantasy and Suspense, Trippin' with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember, Dueling Harlows ) . Louise is among the four dozen alumni of Ryan's Hope (ABC, 1975-1989) that Tom int...
Jan 27, 2025•23 min•Season 17Ep. 675
TVC 675.4: Emmy Award-winning actress Louise Shaffer ( Ryan's Hope ) talks to Ed and guest co-host Tom Lisanti about the instrumental role that Ryan's Hope co-creator Claire Labine played in helping Louise transition from acting to writing, and why Maeve Ryan, Helen Gallagher's character on Ryan's Hope , was the hardest character on the series for Louise or any other writer to write for. Other topics this segment includes Louise and Tom's favorite storylines of Ryan's Hope , plus Louise shares a...
Jan 27, 2025•24 min•Season 17Ep. 675
TVC 675.5: From June 2016: Actress and author Charlotte Stewart ( Little House on the Prairie, Twin Peaks, Little House in the Hollywood Hills ) shares a few memories about working with David Lynch on both Twin Peaks and Eraserhead , plus she talks to Ed about the "David Lynch-like" approaching to directing that Neil Young took when Charlotte worked with Young on the film Human Highway . David Lynch passed away on Wednesday, Jan. 15 at age seventy-eight....
Jan 27, 2025•16 min•Season 17Ep. 675
TVC 674.1: TV Confidential remembers Michael Schlesinger , the film executive and champion of classic movie restoration who was also the writer, producer, and director of The Misadventures of Biffle and Shooster , a collection of 1930s-style comedies—all starring Will Ryan and Nick Santa Maria—that pay homage to The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and other vintage comedy teams from the Golden Era of Hollywood. Though filmed circa 2013, the sets, camera shots, attention to ...
Jan 20, 2025•26 min•Season 17Ep. 674
TVC 674.2: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with singer, actor, producer, and entertainment legend Pat Boone . Pat stars, along with Michael Learned, Kevin Sorbo, Tom Wopat, and Dean Cain, in the biopic Our Crossroads , a true story of family and faith that is scheduled for release in July 2025. Pat and Kevin Sorbo also both play Thomas Jefferson in The American Miracle , another film that is slated for release later in 2025, while Pat can currently be seen in Reagan and Miracle in ...
Jan 20, 2025•21 min•Season 17Ep. 674
TVC 674.3: Pat Boone talks to Ed about working with Shirley Jones in April Love , with Ann-Margret in State Fair , and with Barbara Eden in All Hands on Deck . Pat can currently be seen in Reagan and Miracle in the Valley , both of which are available now for viewing on demand through Amazon Prime, while Pat's latest movies, Our Crossroads and The American Miracle , are both scheduled for release later in 2025....
Jan 20, 2025•18 min•Season 17Ep. 674
We'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential later this week. In the meantime, please enjoy this clip from January 2015 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at the legacy of The Simpsons on television and on pop culture in general. The first regular episode of The Simpsons originally aired on Jan. 14, 1990.
Jan 14, 2025•7 min
TVC 673.1: Part 2 of a conversation that began just before the holidays with Nick Nugent , author of The Knight Rider Companion: Abridged Edition , everything you wanted to know about the classic TV series starring David Hasselhoff, Edward Mulhare, and the voice of William Daniels. Topics this segment include how series creator Glen Larson originally saw Knight Rider as a contemporary rendering of The Lone Ranger ; why KITT and the car were two different entities; the show's impact on 1980s pop ...
Jan 13, 2025•18 min•Season 17Ep. 673
TVC 673.2: Nick Nugent , author of The Knight Rider Companion: Abridged Edition , discusses some of the new material available in his book. The Knight Rider Companion Abridged Edition is available from Black Pawn Press....
Jan 13, 2025•12 min•Season 17Ep. 673
TVC 673.3: Ed welcomes back Pat Boone , the legendary singer, actor, and all-around entertainer who not only celebrated his ninetieth birthday a few months back, but also recently marked his seventieth year in show business. Pat Boone and Michael Learned star as Bob and Barbara Fraley in the biopic Our Crossroads , a true story of family and faith that also features Kevin Sorbo, Tom Wopat, and Dean Cain. Our Crossroads is scheduled for release in July 2025. Pat Boone and Kevin Sorbo also both pl...
Jan 13, 2025•26 min•Season 17Ep. 673
TVC 673.4: Ed welcomes Dawn Moore , one of the top marketing and branding professionals in the luxury retail industry, and the daughter of Clayton Moore , the actor known to three generations of television viewers as The Lone Ranger . The 2024-2025 television season marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the premiere of The Lone Ranger (ABC, 1949-1957) on TV. Topics this segment include the throughline between what Dawn does for a living today and what her dad was doing forty and fifty years ago...
Jan 13, 2025•18 min•Season 17Ep. 673
TVC 673.5: Dawn Moore , daughter of Clayton Moore , talks to Ed about the origins of the Lone Ranger Creed; how her dad embodied the words of the Creed every day for the last fifty years of his life; and how Dawn displayed quotes from some of the tenets of the Creed on the window of the Harry Winston jewelry store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills to help calm her neighborhood on the day after of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Other topics this segment include the various connections bet...
Jan 13, 2025•22 min•Season 17Ep. 673
We'll be back with a brand new edition of T V Confidential later this week. In the meantime, please enjoy this clip from January 2015 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at the circumstances that led to James Garner to end The Rockford Files (NBC, 1974-1980)in the middle of the show's sixth season. The final episode of The Rockford Files aired on Jan. 10, 1980 during This Week in TV History.
Jan 10, 2025•11 min
TVC 672.1: Ed welcomes entertainment journalist and comedy historian Tripp Whetsell . Tripp's latest book, Norman Lear: His Life and Times , is the first comprehensive biography of the legendary, Emmy Award-winning producer of All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, The Fact of Life , and many other series that helped elevate the American network sitcom. While much has been written about Norman Lear, before and after his death on Dec. 5. 2023, Tripp's book shows that there remains ...
Jan 06, 2025•22 min•Season 17Ep. 672
TVC 672.2: Tripp Whetsell , author of Norman Lear: His Life and Times , talks to Ed about how the latitude that Norman Lear often gave his actors and his writers on his television shows was often a double-edged sword; Lear's years as a motion picture producer in the 1960s; and the events that led to the premiere on All in the Family on CBS in January 1971. Norman Lear: His Life and Times is available wherever books are sold through Applause Books. Tripp Whetsell will appear at Book Soup , 8818 S...
Jan 06, 2025•20 min•Season 17Ep. 672
TVC 672.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began just before the holidays with Steve Randisi , author of Penny Singleton: A Biography , a comprehensive look at the life and career of the actress who not only achieved worldwide fame in the 1930s and '40s as the star of the Blondie movie series from Columbia Pictures (and, later, to TV audiences as the voice of Jane Jetson on the original Jetsons TV series and, later, the Jetsons movie), but who made history in 1958 when she became the first female ...
Jan 06, 2025•16 min•Season 17Ep. 672
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from January 2015 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at the premiere of A.M. America , the precursor to Good Morning, America , on Jan. 6, 1975. An offshoot of Ralph Story's A.M ., a local program produced by KABC-TV in Los Angeles, A.M. America never found an audience on a national level and was canceled ten m...
Jan 05, 2025•9 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from January 2015 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed celebrate the life and legacy of Alan Hale, the actor known around the world as The Skipper on Gilligan's Island . Alan Hale passed away on Jan. 2. 1990, thirty-five years ago This Week in TV History.
Jan 02, 2025•10 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from January 2015 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at the premiere of Hullabaloo , NBC's answer to Shindig , on Jan. 12, 1965.
Jan 01, 2025•5 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from January 2012 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed look back at the tragic death of Alias Smith and Jones star Pete Duel on Dec. 30, 1971.
Dec 30, 2024•10 min
We're taking a few days off this week, but we'll be back with a brand new edition of TV Confidential next week. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past, featuring an excerpt from our October 2010 conversation with Emmy and Grammy Award-winning composer Charles Fox. Charles' book, Killing Me Softly: My Life in Music , not only walks readers through his journey in music and television, but also pays tribute to the teacher who continues to influence him, the great French composer and...
Dec 27, 2024•6 min•Season 2Ep. 64
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past, featuring an excerpt from our August 2020 tribute to Regis Philbin in which our colleague Greg Ehrbar shares some memories of working with Regis, Joan Lunden, and Mayim Bialik behind the scenes of the annual Disney Christmas Parade telecasts from the early 1990s.
Dec 25, 2024•15 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from December 2013 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss "The Big Little Jesus," the second of two Christmas episodes that Jack Webb produced for Dragnet, which aired on Dec. 24, 1953, both on television as well as for the radio version of Dragnet.
Dec 24, 2024•6 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from October 2020 in which Ed, Tony, and Donna ask eight-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner how he approached playing both Santa Claus and God.
Dec 23, 2024•6 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from December 2010 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed remember the premiere of the Rankin-Bass animated special Frosty the Snowman (CBS, 1969).
Dec 22, 2024•4 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from December 2018 in which Greg Ehrbar and Ed discuss the then-new DVD release of Santa Claus is Comin' to Town; how the various mythologies that screenwriter Romeo Muller created specifically for Santa Claus is Comin' to Town has since become part of the lore of Santa; and why the casting of Mickey Rooney, Fred A...
Dec 20, 2024•13 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime, please enjoy this Blast from the Past clip from December 2013 in which Tony, Donna, and Ed discuss "The Big .22 Rifle for Christmas," an episode of Dragnet that originally aired on Dec. 18, 1952. An adaptation of an episode of the Dragnet radio series that originally aired in December 1949, this was the first of two Christmas episodes that Jack Webb produce...
Dec 18, 2024•9 min
We're taking a few days off for the holidays, but we'll be back with brand new editions of TV Confidential in the new year. In the meantime (and in light of Dick Van Dyke's 99th birthday last week), please enjoy this Blast from the Past featuring an excerpt from our September 2016 conversation with Vince Waldron, author of The Official Dick Van Dyke Show Book . In this segment Vince talks about why Reiner and Sheldon Leonard cast Dick Van Dyke because he embodied all three aspects of the Rob Pet...
Dec 18, 2024•8 min
